This invention is of a mechanism which controls the timbre and the volume of flute sound. More concrete explanation of the device is as follows. This device enables the players to control the various color and the volume of the sound and perform with unique tone regardless to what material each flute is made up of.
The flute, one of the woodwind instruments, has even tone in all ranges, and the basic tone made by its unique oscillation gives the impression of spreading smoke. Since the amount of breath and the fortitude of the vibration is controlled by the player""s lips themselves, the player has the most significant effect on the characteristics of the sound. The player can also contribute to a more lively sound with vigor or to more delicate and supple sound with emotion. Such advantages of the flute have attracted attentions of music lovers not only in the past but also today.
Flutes can be distinguished into French open key flutes and German covered key flutes depending on whether the key over the tone hole is open or not. They used be made of wood in the beginning but today, they are made of metal and covered with nickel or silver. Some players have some part of their flutes made in silver, or the whole instrument in silver, gold or platinum.
The constitution of the flute can be simply stated as follows. There is a head joint with a head screw which controls volume and the mouthpiece which lets the air in, the body joint with holes that control pitch and the foot joint. Described here is a head joint with head screw which enables the control of volume.
FIG. 3 is a sectional drawing of essential parts showing the volume-control mechanism of the head joint former flutes. It shows that on the outside, there is a mouthpiece formed to let air in. In the inside, the control cap where the end of the spiral staff is screwed, and the operating part with a cork which prevents the air from escaping through the metal pieces where the spiral staff crosses are arranged inside the head joint.
According to the drawing, certain amount of space is formed between the operating part and the control cap.
In earlier flutes, the volume is controlled by the revolution of the control cap(54) which spins the screwed on spiral staff(502). This changes the distance of the metal piece(504)(a part of the operating part(500)) and the cork(506), altering, at the same time, the distance with the mouthpiece(52). Thus difference in the pressure of the air inserted through the mouthpiece(52) can regulate the pitch and the volume of a tone.
The further the operating part(500) is from the mouthpiece(52) the higher the pitch and the closer, the lower. At this point, if the mouthpiece(52) and the operating part(500) is kept 17 mm apart, then the high pitch and the low pitch can ring with good balance altogether, which is why most flutes are set this way.
But in the head joint of these earlier flutes, the pitch and the volume can be controlled only by the change of air pressure between the mouthpiece and the operating part producing a fixed sound which prevented players from performing with certain character of their own.
Also flutes made up of nickel, silver, gold or platinum, all have different tonality from each other. Therefore professional players have the inconvenience of using hand made flutes of silver, gold or platinum which has even tone yet and an expensive price.
Thus, this mechanism was developed to relieve such problems of the earlier flutes and to help the players perform with characterized tone by allowing tone color and volume to be controlled independent from the materials of which each instrument is made.
Controlling the tone color and volume will also enable players to give outstanding performances without expensive flutes which would achieve the other purpose of this invention.
In order to accomplish these purposes, this specific mechanism is installed to the head joint of the flute which forms the flute along with the body joint and the foot joint. A blocking piece is positioned behind the cork of the head joint and a connecting piece is screwed on to the installed control cap in a spiral assembly. The oscillation wave caused by the air pressure inserted through the mouthpiece of the head joint goes through the cork and is transferred to the blocking piece and the connecting piece with different weights reflecting some part of the wave and absorbing the other at the sane time. Thus this wave will change into different oscillating waves, which makes the variety of tone color and volume possible. To achieve the above, the mechanism is formed of two parts in the head joint; blocking piece with a certain thickness screwed on to a spiral staff behind the cork-lined up through the screw holes under the spiral staff-and the connecting part attached to the top control cap by the projected screw attachment-the screw attachment and the control cap lined up is the spiral attachment. It is also characteristic that there is an ornament on the outer side of the control cap.